Monday, June 30, 2008

I've been looking for an open-source solution for ages for one-click host services, such as Rapidshare, Megaupload, Upload.to... the list is more or less endless. A downloader of this type is usually useful if you don't want to pay all those services monthly for a single download.

I have postponed this for some time, then I finally stumbled upon jDownloader!

It's java-based so you will probably need java:

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-bin sun-java6-fonts

It features many useful stuff, one them is the cute interface (GTK-like), also many themes to appeal your eye. Moreover, you can use the Captcha Exchange Service with this nifty downloader. A built-in default CAPTCHA service is the jAC (java anti-captcha), which starts to automatically "learn" captchas and can make typing CAPTCHAs a breeze (Of course you have to type the first say 20-30 captchas).

Another great service is their addons, directly or downloadable through rapidshare, easily enabled and disabled through configuration (Don't forget to check "Expert mode" for more features!).

The downside is that it's sometimes buggy, still needs to be worked with. It also needs is a good language translator, since some important messages are still left in German, and... "Kein sprechenzi Deutche"!

But being limited, this downloader is the best so far, gets an overall score: 8/10 stars! :)

Sunday, June 29, 2008

You run it from Applications > Graphics > Rawstudio, open your directory with the raw files, select them then go to the menu Batch > Add to batch queueThen click on the "Batch" tab (on the right of the program). Choose the settings you want (no need to change the filename though).

There was a fellow at ubuntuforums with a Fuji camera that couldn't convert the raw (.RAF) images.I provided the following solution:

Now that you have the program built and running, let's check out some of its features in order to capture the movie "screenshots" along with other info about the movie file:

Menu File > OptionsFrames to capture = set how many frames you want to captureImage width / height = the frame image width and height (not the BIG image)Margin = margin between frame imagesColumns = columns for the frame images - For example, if you set "frames to capture" as 24 and 6 columns, you will be creating a 6 column x 4 frame images in each column BIG image (kind of like the image I posted)Press Ok

Load your movie / video file

Click the "Save file" button to save them all in ONE BIG image, or "Save folder" to output each frame separately.

Friday, June 20, 2008

It's an examination period and I'm determined to pass the exams I have left, Biochemistry comes first. As all students, I don't have much to comment about my exams ;) I'm trying my best, with all the stuff going around my head, the birds flying and pretty girls walking by my apartment. It is not easy, I can tell you that! Bottom line is that I have to pass the year to go on with my life... and that actually means several sacrifices have to be made. As you can see, I haven't updated my blog lately, due to this - let's just call it "re-organizing priorities".Sitting my rear all day long isn't something I always wanted to do, but there are really times when that is necessary, an exam period is a perfect moment to start practising! People that do extra study get a bonus reward for their hard work (besides passing grades): Hemorrhoids!On the other hand, what I really don't like is that I've begun to forget my flawless English, with all the Serbian studying I start making critical spelling errors and pronunciation mistakes.

Concerning the "computer geek" world around me, ubuntucy.org has kicked off finally, and pretty well dare I say, the Ubuntu Cypriot Team has began its first steps to becoming a successful local team. It's still a bit foggy around the organization, but as theo said we could use some anarchy in our lives every once and a while.